Wacken Open Air 2008
31st July - 2nd August. Ticket price - Currently selling for around £200. Sold out, so only avaliable via Ebay etc.
Wacken is the most heavily attended metal festival in Europe and is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best festival experience out there and this years line up is no disappointment. It has also, unsurprisingly, led to the festival being sold out months in advance, with Iron Maiden headlining, that’s hardly surprising.
One disappointment for me personally is the cancellation of Axel Rudi Pell, but the rest of the bands on the bill ought to make up for that. Avantasia, Opeth, Nightwish, Exodus and Carcass to name but a few.
Credit must go to the organisers who have managed to resist the urge to increase the capacity, despite the increased demand. I think that they’re saving the festival in the long run by continuing to monitor the growth slowly. That can only be good for metalheads in the long run.
THE REVIEW
This years Wacken Open Air promised to be the biggest and best ever, which is quite a claim when you consider some of the past line ups. But on paper it was clear that the number of bands that I wanted to see this year far outweighed the number from last year. In fact, my only real worry was when I was going to find time to drink in between!
As I’m sure you can imagine, when we drove past the Wacken Village sign after a 35 hour drive from Lancashire to the heart of Germany we were extremely excited. We’d arrived there early so we could soak up the atmosphere and chill out before the bands got there and that was a master stroke. The Wacken atmosphere is almost indescribable, it’s like a brotherhood and a camaraderie between people from all walks of life and all countries of the world coming under the banner of Wacken - but I’m not here to review the atmosphere of Wacken; that’ll be done at the end of the festival season when HB compares all of this years festivals in a summary to find the best overall European Festival.
The first day of music was a relatively sparse day as it was all geared towards a performance by the mighty Iron Maiden, but despite that there were a number of bands on that I wanted to check out. Firstly, Airbourne were opening on the black stage and ever since seeing the video for ‘too much too young’ I thought they would be a band to see. They put on a very energetic performance with some good rock tunes, ever so slightly generic but that was more than made up for by the energy on stage exemplified by a guitar solo from half way up the scaffolding of the stage. 7/10
After watching and enjoying my first set of the festival I decided to prepare myself for the long night leading up to maiden with some liquid nourishment. When I returned, it was just in time to push my way into the headbangers ballroom to see Alestorm. The Scottish pirate metallers had the crowd in the palm of their hands throughout the set and gained a huge number of new fans from their performance. It was a masterclass of rum based metal - Captain Morgan would be proud! 8/10
After leaving Alestorm I managed to catch the last few songs of Avenged Sevenfold’s set, which was much better than I anticipated. I’ve not been a fan of Avenged Sevenfold for a long while and I expected a set full of ego’s and fairly poorly played technical melodic metal songs. I was surprised to find however that the bands newer songs weren’t too bad and what’s more they were played live absolutely perfectly. Whilst still not being my cup of tea I had to hand it to them that these guys had maybe got a bit more bad press than they deserve.8/10
Next up were the mighty Iron Maiden, who I was stood quite a long way away from due to the fact that I’d wanted to watch other bands during the day, but that detracted nothing away from the performance which was, as you’d expect, brilliant. I was more relieved than anything else coming away from that, as after seeing Slayer earlier this summer and having been very disappointed by them, I was worried that I may have had a second legendary band not live up to the hype. Thankfully, I never needed to worry. 10/10
As I surfaced on the Friday morning nursing a relatively mild hangover which was cured by a can of Dr Pepper and a packet of crisps, I spent the building preparing myself for the aural onslaught that is Job for a Cowboy. Any who read the review of Tuska Open Air will be aware that I gave the band a good review despite the fact that they had to perform without a singer so I expected extremely good things from the full compliment. What I did get was an energetic performance with the same crushing guitars and technical drumming that caught my attention at Tuska, but here, despite being accompanied by their singer, I felt a little disappointed. I don’t know whether I might have built them up in my head since last seeing them but I just expected a little more from them. Still it was a good start to the day. 7/10
After this I watched the majority of the Unearth set that was the adjacent stage, whilst I did not have my full attention on them (my mate had lost his shoe in the pit for Job for a Cowboy) they still gave a good account of themselves and had a strong crowd reaction so I’ll give them a solid 7/10.
After an hour long search in the huge metal market for anywhere that sold shoes (there was only one place that wasn’t trying to flog my mate knee length PVC jobbies) we were ready for some liquid refreshment and when we made our way back to the arena it was just in time for The Rotted.
I was at the W.E.T stage just a few minutes before The Rotted were due to play, yet was still able to garner a pretty good position in the crowd, probably mainly consisting of gore fans (such as myself) who remember Gorerotted, The Rotted’s previous incarnation. As they take to the stage, milking the Silence after the intro for a few seconds, then Ben McCrow growls them into “Nothin’ but a Nosebleed”, the first track form their Debut “Get Dead or Die Trying”. This band displays an impressive level of musicianship which makes their songs seem, at times almost simple, blending death metal, thrash, and even punk. For me this translated perfectly live, and I can’t say I enjoyed another band more the whole festival, as all I remember is a blend of violence and melody. The band seemed to have shaken of the goofy gore approach of the past and started taking everything much more seriously, resulting in a bleak, nihilistic, down to earth portrait of life, executed with a sense of irony I feel only an English group could manage. 10/10
As I caught the last few minutes of the Kamelot set, I have to say that Soilwork were a breath of fresh air, although I am probably being overly generous here, just because I’m not a fan of Kamelot. The set was tight and well thought out, their melodic Swedish metal fitting in well with the inclement weather. Skinhead frontman Bjorn Strid keeps the crowd entertained, and many a pit/wall of death/general crowd action is had in Soilwork’s honour. Like a warm coffee on a cold day 7/10
Next up were Sabaton who, despite them being relatively unknown in England, harbour a solid European following - and so when we arrived at the party stage we found ourselves some distance back and expecting to be bored. How wrong we were. The band put on a great display with an interesting stage setup and mixed their set with crushing songs from their new album and classic singalong sets from previous offerings. Mixed in with some great banter from the singer, Sabaton proved to be one of the big hits of the festival. 9/10
I decided after this surprisingly good performance to give Sonata Arctica another chance, but, despite Wacken being a far more suitable festival for them compared to Tuska, they were still relatively stagnant live, in fact if anything they were more sloppy, although there may have been sound issues. I spoke with numerous die hard Sonata fans who said it took them 30 seconds just to recognise the songs which is just poor if you as me. 5/10
After that poor performance I was a little worried about watching Opeth, as with the complexities in their songs, any sound issues would totally take away the effect of the music. Thankfully however there was nothing to fear, as they played a good selection of songs, from Blackwater Park to their most recent release which the whole crowd really got into. That said, despite it being an hour long set it was a little disappointing that they only found time to play four songs, but despite that slight grievance it was clear that the band were enjoying what they were playing and so were the crowd.8/10
Getting a good place for Children of Bodom was almost as bad as Maiden. I never noticed this massive growth in fan base, or maybe I just haven’t been paying attention, as I, like a lot of Bodom’s older fans, have felt rather short changed by their last few releases/performances. Anyhow, tonight’s (arguable) headline set I had to admit was very good. Despite the usual live sloppiness, probably alcohol related, the set was full of gusto, charisma and energy. It’s good to see that classics like “Deadnight Warrior” and “Downfall” remain, although I fear I might never see “Warhearts” again. The full set of walkway, burnt out car, and “COB” in giant bulbs is of course there, and despite knowing that they used to be much better live, before all this stuff, I still enjoyed the set a reasonable amount. They are probably going to be the Maiden of this generation. 8/10
My final band of the Friday was the Haunted, and despite only catching the last few songs, what I heard and saw was encouraging. Tightly executed, fast and violent thrash, with a frontman obviously full of pent up rage cynically screaming down the mic. Despite the time (almost midnight) there was still a decent amount of crowd action. The Swedes have always been rather positively consistent in delivery in my opinion, and tonight seemed no exception 7/10
My head was a little worse for wear when it poked out of my tent on the final morning but the thought of the feast of bands that I was going to hear today cleared the cobwebs from my head.
It was an early start for the music today as Three Inches of Blood began their set at the crack of noon, while I was taking my place near the front for one of my most eagerly anticipated bands of the weekend: Exodus. From our vantage point we got a good view of Three Inches of Blood who put on a surprisingly good display. They played some of their new songs with which I was pleasantly surprised and the only song that I know by them, Deadly Sinners, was played absolutely brilliantly. Considering how early it was in the day, the singer had a surprisingly large crowd in the palm of his hand and I doubt any of them left unsatisfied. 8/10
What followed next was the most annoying few minutes of the whole festival for me. As Exodus took to the stage, the opening chords of an unrecognisable song came out through the speakers and three middle aged men took to the stage much to the chagrin of the vast majority of spectators. After two songs the singer decided he’d better introduce himself and his band, they were Sweet Savage, a band who were scheduled to play a smaller stage before the festival even kicked into gear. After suffering two more songs with no explanation of where Exodus had got to there was a mass exodus away from the stage. I’m not a big fan of rock at the best of times and Sweet Savage seemed to me the most generic of middle aged rock - but the real icing on the cake was the fact that the singer decided to pretend that the huge crowd in front of him was actually there to watch him rather than explain to them what was going on. Perhaps there would have been a lot fewer hostile fans if he’d have shown them that courtesy.4/10
After this extremely frustrating moment we retired to our campsite to conserve energy before Hatebreed.
As we entered the arena a couple of hours later before Hatebreed took to the stage it was just in time to see an Exodus banner being taken down off the other stage. Cue a colourful outburst from yours truly. But if there was ever a band to listen to when you’re angry, it’s Hatebreed and as they took to the stage the whole arena went mental. They played an enjoyable mix of old classics and newer material which had people bouncing and pitting like maniacs. When you consider the line up, Hatebreed may not appear to be a natural choice for Wacken but they really proved something to me and rekindled my enjoyment in their hardcore metal stylings. 9/10
As we recovered from Hatebreed’s awesome set and got ourselves a decent position for Carcass I was able to watch As I Lay Dying’s set on the big screen. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised without being particularly blown away. They played decent music but I don’t think that it was ever an easy prospect being sandwiched between Hatebreed and Carcass but they made a decent go of it without ever being spectacular. 7/10
Next up were the legends that are Carcass. After seeing them at Tuska I was expecting big things from these death metal masters, I have to say though that it wasn’t nearly as good a performance as I experienced in Finland but it still got the crowd going and with a special guest vocal appearance from Arch Enemy’s Angela gthere. 8/10
Another such moment happened during that Carcass set when Ken Owen, founding member of Carcass who has had two operations following a brain haemorrhage in 1999, played a short, simple drum solo to a huge audience who gave him the largest ovation of the day. It was a really emotional moment and it’s a great credit to Carcass that they would go to the trouble of doing that for him.
There was an unmistakable buzz in the air before At The Gates, anticipation of the group presumed gone forever, who are probably responsible for the inception of most of the younger bands playing the festival. The fact that it’s dark and raining only adds to the electricity, and surely will aid the grim melodic death metal everyone is waiting for. The roar is gargantuan as they take the stage, deafening when the infectious intro riff to “Slaughter of the Soul” fuzzes out. The sudden violence of the reaction is something to behold, as I (and most of the people around me) are surprised to be suddenly engulfed in a massive pit. It’s truly a tailored-to-please set, containing at least one song from every release, obviously most from “Slaughter of the Soul”. The encore of “Blinded By Fear” and “Suicide Nation” are the highlight, by which point most of the ground has been churned into mud. Everyone leaves glad they have caught this (most likely) short lived reunion, covered in sweat and rain. Muddy, violent, melodic and awesome 9/10
My final band of the weekend was Nightwish, who I saw from a significant distance along with a large proportion of the rest of the crowd as they had an Iron Maidenesque crowd. The reasons for this was clear as they played numerous tracks old and new to a great reception, the highlight for me was Amaranth which was played perfectly. I was also impressed with how the band pulled off difficult long multifaceted songs like ‘The Poet and the Pendulum’ without a hint of a problem. 9/10
The great thing about a festival like Wacken is that you can spend all day watching music and there will almost always be a band on that are to your taste. And thanks to the hard work of sound and stage crew, you’re rarely disappointed by sound so you can really get a feel for new bands you’ve never heard before and have a great time listening to your favourites. Wacken this year was unsurprisingly brilliant, and considering they’ve sold 10,000 tickets in 24 hours when this was written, I think we’re in for another great Wacken next year as well.
James Hodgson
(Featuring Joe Butler)